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Cleveland vs Cleven

American parents have registered 22,032 Clevelands since 1880, against 583 Clevens. Cleveland is still ahead, with 11 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cleveland against Cleven, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cleveland Cleven

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Cleveland has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1908, when Cleveland had 59 and Cleven had 5.

Side by side

  Cleveland Cleven
Total US births 22,032583
Most in one year 36821
Babies in 2025 11under 5
Estimated living today 9,400200
Median age today 6068
Peak year 19471920
Best rank 360th boys1,694th boys
Rank in 2025 7,194thunranked
First recorded 18801908
Girls / boys 87 / 21,9450 / 583

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Clevens alive today are over 68; half the Clevelands are over 60. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Cleveland and Cleven.